8/29/2008

Colby Rasmus is probably the St. Louis Cardinals' most prominent prospect and ideally their center fielder of the future. Since his swing has been the subject of significant discussion and debate this year, I have been trying to find a video clip that I could analyze. This weekend I finally found a good video clip of Colby Rasmus hitting a Home Run to Right Field (I assume this year).

Colby Rasmus Swing Analysis

The bottom line, which I hope bodes well for my Cardinals, is that Colby Rasmus has a nice, short, simple, and classic left-handed swing that resembles the swings of Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Jr., and a number of other very good left-handed hitters.

Colby Rasmus

As you can see in Frame 01, Colby Rasmus has a small leg lift. This helps him establish his timing. At the moment the pitcher releases the ball, Colby Rasmus starts to drop his front foot into foot plant.

Ted Williams said the hips lead the hands, and that is clearly what happens in Colby Rasmus' swing. In Frame 20, you can see that Colby Rasmus sits down slightly into foot plant and then his hips start to rotate. Colby Rasmus' shoulders are reverse-rotated at the top of his leg lift and as his front foot drops, which helps to ensure that his hips rotate ahead of his shoulders. This stretches the muscles of his torso and helps to pull his shoulders around.

In Frame 24, Colby Rasmus' front heel has planted and his shoulders have started to rotate. If you count frames, you can see that Colby Rasmus is 9 doubled frames (4.5 standard frames) to contact, which is quite good and means that he has a short swing. This is important because it will enable him to wait a bit longer before swinging which gives him more time to read the pitch.

It's hard to read the angle of Colby Rasmus' back elbow at the Point Of Contact, but in Frame 28 his back elbow is still quite bent and his hands appear to be rotating with his back shoulder.